Thinkpads Forum

Hi folks... from today onwards I'm finally a thinkpad owner

Got around to finally find a nice T60 (2007-EH7)

But, the hard drive seems to be a bit sketchy... i've only got around to install windows XP leaving the first 10GB spare.

So, i was thinking of doing one of those hitachi hard drive tests (the hard drive is a hitachi). Is it ok to use their "drive fitness test" tool from
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

or do I have to use a special version downloaded from Lenovo? I understand hard drives that come in T60s have different firmware than retail ones?

I smell bad blocks going on, do you reckon I might be able to recover some by wiping all sectors to 0?

TIA!

The Hitachi DFT is recommended for all Hitachi drives. The fact that the drive has a Lenovo part number on it is irrelevant. It does have the capability to repair bad sectors. Firmware..who knows. Yes Lenovo does supply it. How much it differs from a retail Hitachi drive is unknown. Personal experience and anecdotal evidence says that DFT will work no matter what.

Congrats!

Welcome to the world of ThinkPads.... As Harryc indicated at the end of the day it's a Hitachi drive so I would have no problem using their utility.

Welcome to the wonderful world of owning a ThinkPad and welcome to our ThinkPad Users Group

Please reach out should you need any advise. We are all here to aid one another.


Best to you

Thanks folks! I appreciate that

Actually I've been hanging out here for a while already, I've had a R40e (still around, my girlfriend has it) and currently I still own a Lenovo 3000 N100 (have to sell it now), so I've been fond of Lenovo/IBM machines for a while

Anyway, back to my issues: which exactly is the DFT test that allows you to try and repair bad blocks?

Another question is:
This machine's former owner was into Mandriva and he'd ripped off the Windows license sticker on the bottom of the Tpad. As a result the hard drive had been wiped clean too - that means no more Rescue and Restore partition on it. I've just installed an XP pro on it to try it, but if I have to RMA the machine, what will they say? I don't know what to do about this...

Always remove 'CRU's before RMA. Customer replaceable units include hard drives and optical drives. DFT has an option to 'erase disk', that is the one. It might say 'low level format'. Obviously this will destroy all of your data so back it up. Normally the hard drive will reallocate a sector/block on a write operation if it is bad. What is the problem that you are trying to fix? 'Bit sketchy' doesn't really say much ...

kamaleon wrote:This machine's former owner was into Mandriva and he'd ripped off the Windows license sticker on the bottom of the Tpad. As a result the hard drive had been wiped clean too - that means no more Rescue and Restore partition on it. I've just installed an XP pro on it to try it, but if I have to RMA the machine, what will they say? I don't know what to do about this...

You may want to obtain a set of Product Recovery discs, either XP or Vista, to start with a factory build before modifying to your ideal setup. Will also provide the R&R partition if you like, and a recovery method, as well as a full restore in the event of resale.

Harryc wrote:Always remove 'CRU's before RMA. Customer replaceable units include hard drives and optical drives.

Sorry, I don't get it - you mean whenever I must call the warranty in I need to remove hard drives and optical drives? What if these are the elements failing?

DFT has an option to 'erase disk', that is the one. It might say 'low level format'. Obviously this will destroy all of your data so back it up. Normally the hard drive will reallocate a sector/block on a write operation if it is bad. What is the problem that you are trying to fix? 'Bit sketchy' doesn't really say much ...

Have been running DFT, it can't handle my drive or repair the sectors on it - it says defective device - excess shock.

I know there was a linux program called badblocks that could "cure" the bad sectors by marking them out... I wonder if anything can be done to rescue my drive.

Actually, I could call the warranty, but I'm a bit weary of the fact that the computer doesn't have the windows XP license (sticker) anymore, the hard drive doesn't have the R'R partition anymore, I don't have the restoration CDs...

rbena wrote:You may want to obtain a set of Product Recovery discs, either XP or Vista, to start with a factory build before modifying to your ideal setup. Will also provide the R&R partition if you like, and a recovery method, as well as a full restore in the event of resale.

Do you mean I have to buy them from Lenovo?

If the hard drive is bad and the machine is under warranty, Lenovo will ship you a new drive and you send back the old one. It is a customer replaceable part.

You could post a wanted item on the forum Marketplace, listing the discs you desire for your particular notebook, and offer reasonable cost and shipping.

Thanks for the input folks, I'll see how it goes.

Another thing I've noticed on this machine is that the screen looks really bad! I can't believe how poor the quality is. Having checked the FRU part number it seems it's a Samsung one. Its vision angles are absolutely appalling - it doesn't even look homogeneous when looking at it from the normal typing distance. I'm really disappointed about it. If I'm calling the warranty for the faulty drive I'll definetly try to have them do something about it.

any other benefit by installing the driver?

Which driver?

http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... MIGR-63685

Firmware update utility

Oh right

I can try that - but my hard drive is severely damaged, don't have to be a thinkpad einstein to realise that it's dying. I'll give it a go anyway just for the knowledge, thanks.